Physics and Applied Physics

John Le Blanc

John J. Le Blanc graduated from University of Massachusetts Lowell; MS Physics 1985

He is currently working at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass. He's been at Draper Labs for 15 years and is Principal member of Technical Staff.

"The cool thing about having a Physics background, is that you can work on a wide range of projects. At Draper Labs, we try and bridge the space between university research and production of complicated systems. Myself, I like to play with light and atoms. I am building neural probes with optical waveguide on top, to look at optical degradation in brain tissue. I make miniature rubidium vapor cells that act as super sensitive magnetic field sensors when we measure spin precessions. I build atomic clocks that work by cooling atoms down to a few milliKelvin over absolute zero. In another project, I am detecting captured T-cells by looking at their interaction with the evanescent field of a waveguide. I collaborate with lots of engineers and scientists, university professors, government scientist, medical doctors and a lot of students." - Le Blanc